and preserves, and tea breads and pas-tries. The menu tells the story of how
teas became popular in the Victorian
era, after the Duchess of Bedford got a
little peckish between meals.
STORY TIME
It really is about those stories. When I
sat down at the mahogany Round Robin Bar at the Willard InterContinental
Hotel in Washington, D.C., earlier this
year, I didn’t much care whether the
mint julep was well-balanced. I cared
more that I may have been sitting in the
same exact space where Senator Henry
Clay, the gentleman from Kentucky,
introduced Washingtonians to the cocktail in the 1850s.
“Preservation of the experience is
vital to people’s lives,” says Roche. He
may be hyperbolizing, but only a little.
“It provides people with meaningful
connections to their past.”
And they’ll create new memories for
themselves in the meantime. Roche’s
wedding was all the more memorable, he
says, because he had it at the Greyfield
Inn on Cumberland Island off the coast of
Georgia, “on a remote outpost of civilization.” No phone, no television, and the
staff brought his box lunch to the beach.
“It conjures up images of the past,”
he says. “We felt like the Carnegies.”
After the wedding, instead of heading
to the bar at the big-box, convention
center hotel, they rolled up their pants
legs and walked on the beach.
I know what he means. While I do
wish I could have been at Dorothy
Parker’s round table at the Algonquin, somehow it’s enough for me to
remember the two nights I spent at the
hotel when I was 9 years old. In the
Oak Room, my mother and my grandmother were giggling, practicing blowing smoke rings. My younger sister
and I, bored with the adult antics, were
ordering Shirley Temple after Shirley
Temple. Finally, the waiter caught on.
“Is it the drinks you’re after?” he
asked, “or just the cherries?”
We confessed. We wanted the maraschino cherries. He brought us a plateful.
I remember it as if it were yesterday.
EXQUISITE LUXURY LIVING
FURNISHED CONDOS & APARTMENTS
Five Star furnished luxury accommodations ensure
that your business or pleasure trip to Manhattan is one
of pure comfort. “Your needs are indeed our needs!”
THE ELEGANT ALTERNATIVE TO HOTELS
FD Allen Group, Inc.
501 Fifth Ave., Suite 300, New York,NY 10017 • (646) 342-4613 www.fdallengroup.com • e-mail: fdallengroup@aol.com
LICENSED REAL ESTATE BROKER
/N 3ITE -ASSAGE &OR !LL /CCASIONS
-ASSAGE !T 7ORK
7% /&&% 2
&LEXIBLE %MPLOYEE 7ELLNESS 0LANS
-ARKETING )NCENTIVE 0ROGRAMS
)NDIVIDUAL 0RIVATE -ASSAGE
4RADE 3HOW 0ROMOTIONS 'IVE !WAYS
(OLIDAY 'IFT #ERTIFICATES
WWW MASSAGEATWORKUSA COM
4OLL &REE
THE ONLY HOTEL IN PHILADELPHIA
WITH RUNNING WATER.
The elegant Hyatt Regency at Penn’s Landing
is the only hotel in Philadelphia located on the
historic waterfront. We are conveniently located
near all the cultural, historic, entertainment
and dining attractions of our dynamic city.
For information call 215 928 1234 or visit
pennslanding.hyatt.com.
